I had the great privilege of meeting Whisper Merlot and many of the Penny Dreadfuls when we shot the Make:TV Steampunk piece a year ago this past July.  These folks truly are living the life.  Tor has a great interview with Whisper up on their site now.

In addition to talking about living full-time aboard the S.S. Icarus (an actual vessel mind you, but alas, not an airship) and travelling New England spreading the Steampunk gospel, Whisper discusses The 2010 Steampunk World's Fair:

The Steampunk World’s Fair is going to be held at the Radisson of Piscataway, NJ on May 14th-16th, 2010. It will be three glorious days, a never-ending steampunk party!

Professor Elemental, whom people will know from his pith-hop video “Cup of Brown Joy”, is making his debut United States appearance for the event. He is coming over from the UK and is a wonderful and hilarious guy. We also have Black Tape for a Blue Girl, a dark cabaret group; Madame Ximon, a dancer and head of steampunk gaming event TempleCon; Thomas S. Brown, the artist for New England steam-goth webcomic “Hopeless, Maine”; Opera singer Katie Kat; Veronique Chevalier, coming in from California to sing and amuse us. And of course lit-master G.D. Falksen. Isabella Drive, the steampunk rock band, is working us into their busy schedule, too.

I think I may just have to go! I wonder if they'd let me park the bus in the parking lot?

Click through for Cup of Brown Joy - not to be missed!

It's Steampunk month at Tor Books!  See the Introduction to Steampunk Month here which includes a large index of what you can sxpect to see this month.  

Of particular interest to this scrapyard sociologist are Steampunk as Subculture and No Elitism Please, We’re Steampunk both by Jaymee Goh.

 
Photo: Essdras M Suarez - Boston Globe Staff

There's a nice piece in the Boston Globe today about Boston's Fashion Week, but what particularly caught my eye was the mention of local designer Elena Sanders who was also mentioned back in May and is participating in a show entitled "The Launch."

From The Boston Fashion Week site:

The Fashion Group International of Boston board has launched a pilot program/event that will result in a presentation during Boston Fashion Week and will feature a selection of 'up & coming' new fashion designers.

Elena's chosen aesthetic is, of course, Steampunk and she discusses it with Christopher Muther of the Boston Globe:

I’m picturing lots of coal-stained faces and dust. How do you work different materials into your pieces without them becoming too much like costumes? Well, sometimes they do become a little bit like costumes. I just experiment with a lot of different materials, and my hands pay dearly for it. They’re always cut up and burned. The first time around I used basic metal. This time around I’m using rivets . . . .

By George I think she gets it! The show is Sunday September 27 at the Boston Center for Adult Education from 3-5 PM and costs $25.

Oh hai! we got a nice little shout-out from G4's Attack of the Show! (This is from 2007 but it apparently aired again last night - can anyone tell me what episode?)

Here is a nice article in the online 'zine Morbid Outlook on the subject of Steampunk.  Featured are the work and images of many of my friends including the multi-talented Libby Bulloff and local Boston artist David Dowling along with quotes from the always wonderful Steampunk Magazine.

While I always knew that Steampunk would appeal to many in the dark/spooky/goth community, I was quite surprised how much those same people had to offer that was of interest to this normally shabby dressing garage tinkerer!  ;-)

[Left: David Dowling and Kat Cradock in a photo by Libby Bulloff]

I do not always agree with the good Doctor's methods. I do not believe in hierarchy and Doctor Steel's army of toy soldiers gives me great pause.  But here the Doctor speaks truth.  (via Porkshanks)

G4 Underground does Steampunk! Wow this came out pretty nicely. I don't look like a complete idiot and all of my Abney Park friends look fabulous as usual!

A producer showed up at the Workshop with a camera less than a day after G4 first emailed me - I had no time to clean up and I barely got the car out of storage and running.  The engine was still a little balky after its winter rest and it chose the moment the producer stood up to get a shot to start missing!  I nearly tossed him out on the pavement!

Hi Everyone!  I'm in Seattle now hang'n with rockstars and anarchists for a couple of days of decompression post SteampoweredCon in San Jose.  Steampowered turned out to be a really great event with lots of fascinating people of an even broader spectrum then the already broad spectrum I expected.

My flight was delayed and as a result I was exhausted and a bit shaky when I arrived to give my keynote with only minutes to spare.  The room was at capacity and the crowd quickly made me feel at home. I gave my prepared speech and then unveiled the Wimshurst Machine which I built for an article that will appear in Make Magazine early next year.

Then I brought Jeff VanderMeer up and we announced the fact that on Monday we signed with Artisan Books to write a book on Steampunk!  The book will be highly visual and project oriented and will draw from and highlight all corners of the community.  I'm really excited about this project and really, really happy to be working with Jeff who is a consummate professional and really nice guy.  It was also kind of neat that we shared the announcement, and in fact our first meeting in the flesh, with a thousand or so attendees at the Con!

The following is the complete text of my keynote - it's un-copyedited or proofed so please ignore the typos!

You should also have a look at Alex Soojung-Kim Pang's Reflection on Tinkering from which I borrowed liberally for the speech as it was incredibly relevant to the ideas I wanted to convey that night.

Steampunk Keynote

What sort of future were you promised? When I was young they told me I'd have robotic servants to tend to my every need, cars that would drive themselves while I read the newspaper and vacations in orbiting space hotels. When I was a bit older they promised me ecologically friendly communities where we would all live together in geodesic domes in our white jump suits.